Hoptober Golden Ale | New Belgium Brewing

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T: Follows the nose with some citrus orange, toasted roasted light notes like burning leaves with slight sweetness like maple, many vibrant hued notes of hops like multi coloured leaves on the fall trees. Seems like a brown ale, reminders of Sierra Nevada’s autumn Tumbler.

M: Medium body, medium carbonation.

O: Complex but so subtle that it entices for another sip. The label reminds me of a Thom Thompson painting, and certainly says autumn. The notes are fine like the many leaves on changing trees at multiple levels and hues. Really is a seasonal I could return to over and over. I will give it 8.9 out of 10. Went awesome with pot roast.

2009 backlog. 12 oz bottle. Aroma is of sweet malt, some piney hops, apricot. Appearance is golden (obviously), has nice lacing, thin collar of foam. For a beer called "hoptober," there’s not much hop presence in the flavor (only in the aroma)--there’s more malt here than anything. Tastes like toasted biscuits. Okay, I took a break. As the beer sits, the hop flavor comes out. A nice bitterness lingers on the back of the tongue. Not a bad beer, but nothing I’d ever buy.

Right out the gate this wasn't impressing me, it had the usual AAL yellow color and head, meanwhile the aroma was pretty mute not giving off much in the way of characteristics that you could describe.

Taste brought on a very slight, warm fall day bitterness and Saaz like hop mouthfeel. The word hop in the beer is a little bit of a curve ball, but ultimately the taste and mouthfeel are the strongest aspect of this beer, which I guess is the most important. Its a decent gateway blonde with slightly more toasted pale malt and light hopping than average.

Nice but fairly standard dark gold or amber, fairly clear. Some bone white bubbles hang on for a long time, though the main head dissipates fairly rapidly. Slightly fruity, spicy aroma, understated. Hop forward aroma but not intense. Mild hop forward flavor, cant tell what kind. Good malt character, but not intense. Dry finish with some hop bitterness.